Hello to all. I am having an issue with my ‘00 ucf21. My car, of course, has the ps leak. I bought the car in September and the battery + alternator went out in November. I replaced both, with a new Duralast Gold battery and Remanufactured Alternator.
I Have had no problems since then until yesterday I hit a pothole in the street on the passenger side front. ( not the first time as Atlanta roads are quite bad ) and my battery light illuminated immediately. I drove it home and looked for any loose ends. From what I could tell other than a very grimy oily mess, the wires, grounds, and connectors were all good. The next morning the battery light was still on, so I took it to a friends shop to inspect it on the lift, we did not find anything. The shop diagnostic tool showed no faults. The voltage read 11.3-11.5 when running which I understand is below the 13 volts needed to maintain the system.

I then reluctantly attempted to drive it home and i experienced the warning lights typical for a failed alternator/battery and pulled to a side street in which it still sits at this moment. Today I spent the day spraying the engine with degreaser and taking a closer look at all the connections, still didn’t see anything. I have not yet tested the alternator positive terminals voltage but I plan to tonight when I return to the car. It is in a safe place and I’d rather not pay for a tow.

So my question is, what else could be happening besides the Alternator going out? The reason I am hesitant to assume the alt to be the culprit is that it’s only a few months old, and the point of failure was sudden and due to impact. It seems unusual for an alternator to suddenly fail in this way. I need to fix my car by the end of the weekend as I commute to my college campus.

I am going to the car for a 3rd time to see if I missed anything and test the voltage output of the alternator itself. And tomorrow morning I will be putting in a new alternator.
However any advice or insight would be greatly appreciated




update: new alternator in and all is well. I suspect that the impact of the pothole probably dumped atf fluid from the leaking ps dump and fried it. The ps pump is leaking from the pump itself. Didn’t have time to wait for a new one so I fashioned a plastic cover for the Alternator as previous threads have mentioned. This should hold me out till new parts arrive and I get the time to put them in